Top 12 Bailey Moments of 2012

Happy New Year!!

Parker & I are spending this New Years Eve together cuddled up in our warm home watching tv/movie marathons/football and enjoying delicious food and wine (I am anyway)!  I can't think of a more perfect evening.  It's just want I wanted.  So we started the night off discussing our 12 favorite moments of 2012 and here's our list if you are interested!

Top 12 Bailey Moments of 2012:

1. Celebrating 2 years of an awesome marriage (we think so) on 4/3/12.
2. Our European adventure in March.  This was our first trip as a couple to Europe.  Highlights of that trip included Paris, Brussels, Bruge, Amsterdam and the Swiss Alps!
3. Parker graduating from GT with his MBA degree!  So proud of that stud.
4. On that note... Parker getting hired by Infosys Consulting Group and starting his job in Manhattan. 
5. Becoming an Account Representative with CORT.  My first outside sales job and I love it.
6. Taking trips with our married small group friends.
7. Starting to serve together in Transit (middle school ministry at Buckhead church). 
8. NYC trip at Christmas time!  I also saw my first (hopefully of many) Broadway play.
9. Competing in our first CrossFit competition together.
10. Attending the Braves game play-off (Parker was on cloud nine)!
11. We went skiing together for the first time in North Carolina in February (I busted my booty)!
12. Enjoying life events with our family & friends: graduations, birthdays, baby showers, baby births, weddings, new jobs, new dreams realized, etc.

It's been a great year!  Next up... we talk about what 2013 will look like!  Can't wait.

Be.You.

Let Scripture Become You

Recently I was listening to a message by a favorite female minister, Joyce Meyer, about the power of praying scripture over your life. The way she spoke about this concept brought it into a new light for me and I had an "ah-ha" moment if you will.
Think this over: how much time do you spend thinking about becoming a better version of yourself!? You can fantasize over becoming the ideal you in obviousy a number of areas. To name a few of mine: learning to cook better, being more fashionable, fulfilling my pinterest "To Do" list., etc., etc.
Of course there's also the spiritual list of ways I want to improve (which I deem most important): become more patient, kind, being all encompassed with love, giving, show greater self-control, and the list goes on and on again.
So what it is it that I often do to become this amazing Amberly? Well... I listen to sermons. Read Christian based self-help books. Share my heart with loved ones on the matter. What do I rarely do? I'm embarassed to say... I rarely pray about these spiritual goals in a beneficial way.
I actually pray fairly often for God to change me and make me more in His likeness. As a young Christian I can tell you I sadly prayed to a God who I thought felt ashamed of me and viewed me as "not good enough" too often. At the heart of my prayers in those younger days when in my was the need to repeatedly ask forgiveness in an effort to be accepted back by God. Little did I know the depth of God's love for me at that time.
Now I realize that God's love is never-ending, unbroken, and beyond belief. I know that I am by nature an imperfect being but He loves me more than I could ever fathom.
These days I'd like to think I have a slightly better idea of how to talk to God about my faults and shortcomings. These prayers now sound more like "God, I know I'm imperfect. Can you please help me be more like you? I submit myself fully to your plan for me and who you want me to become. Please help me."
Now I am learning to also pray scripture over my life.  of course in order  to do this you must study the Word and really learn it. My greatest struggle.
So thats my number one goal.
This is so cool bc you can then ask and trust God to fulfill the promises in His word in your life. Then you don't have a need to worry about what you aren't and what you need to be. Naturally you will always have an awareness of how you need to change to be more like Jesus (as any healthy individual should) and also goals in mind to achieve, but trust God to make the change in you. Also, trust His timing for these changes in you and your life to come about.
After all God, not us, is the only one who change us. As a follower of Christ we must trust that in this moment we have to trust that we are exactly who we should be and we are 100,000,000% loved and adored by our Creator.

MrS. B's BuCkEt LiSt

• To love God with all my heart, all my mind, and all of my strength.
• Be a honeymooner forever, and the best wife ever.
• Have little Bailey babies.
• Give myself away to others.
• Learn to sew well enough that I can make baby clothes, costumes for my kiddies, gifts, curtains, pillows, etc.
• Travel, travel, travel to:

1. Europe: go back to Paris and Gimmewald, Switzerland
2.  California 
3. Australia
4. Alaska
5. Colorado
6. Virgin Islands 
7. Italy: Venice, Rome
8. Africa (safari is a definite).

• Have grace, live grace, except grace to the fullest extent and love beyond that.
• Go on a mission trip as a couple.
• Become a crossfit kids instructor.
• Re-learn piano.
• Learn to grown my own little garden.
• Kipping pull ups (string 10), awesome double unders, 
• rope climb like a boss, and get a muscle up.
• Love God's will for me more than my will for me.
• Live in peace and harmony as much as possible with those I love.
• Own a white fluffy puppy.
• Be healthy and active.  I want to be in better shape when I'm 35 than I am now.
• Go camping AND survive.
• Drive across the pacific coast highway.
• Be my own personal hair stylist.
• Be UNperfectionist.
• BE joy.
• Find pleasure in life in the little moments of happiness.

At the end of each day...

Puppy Love

Just want to make sure that everyone understands that I need a dog that looks just like this one in my lap by tomorrow morning! Ok thanks. I'm so in love with it! Honestly it's going to be awhile until I have one, but c'mon, does it get any cuter?

Above is a picture of me with our new house keys (note the pink ribbon tied on, courtesy of my Mother-in-law)!
Friday marked my last day as a Lanier Elementary Wildcat (my last day as a first grade teacher)! Ahhh mixed emotions!
I cried so hard when those 1st graders left (more on thoughts about those kids during another post and time). I'm overjoyed to move to Smryna.
My husband and I had moved all of our belongings to our new home in Smyrna April 23 although my teaching contract did not end in Gainesville until May 27. Our apartment lease had run out April 1 and we didn't want to pay what was asked for more than necessary to stay (it was quite a bit more). So our compromise was to pay extra for April and then to gut it out apart for the month of May. We moved our belongings and Parker April 23 to the Smyrna house and moved me to my mom's house in Gainesville for 1 month.
Parker & I LOVE LOVE LOVE being with each other and we missed each other terribly when apart for even a day. We are that couple that would opt to do everything together excluding some awkward situations that could apply to :). We are best friends. A lot of people say, oh it's because you are still newlyweds... to which I usually think, yes, and always will be. I can't tell you how much my heart lights up just to do little life things with him. He is my favorite person on earth and every day with him is filled with love, joy, laughter, and blessings. I felt like a missing part of a puzzle piece had been put back into my heart when I came home Friday to my Smyrna home to stay not just for the weekend, but forever with him <3
So as much as I loved family time and my 3 mile commute to work each morning of late April- May, I missed my hubs so much more. So yes, Friday was wonderful for that reason alone.
But little did I know that God had a spectacular blessing in story that same day. As you could imagine I will no longer be teaching in Gainesville because of the distance (70 mile commute one way people or 1 1/2 hrs on a GOOD day). So I decided to venture out and attempt to find another job teaching or something other than teaching (I left that part in God's hands). I applied to many different jobs and basically prayed for God to show me what to do. Long story short, He gave me a job Friday!! I'll be working as an leasing agent at the Worthing Companies in Dunwoody.
Now let me brag on God for a second! I didn't apply for this job. I didn't submit a resume. My friend came to me and told me about it, stating that I would be PERFECT for it. So I told her I would submit my resume after school wrapped up. A series of events lead me to do it sooner than planned. Within a week of walking my resume in, I got a call back for a second interview, and the next day after that a job offer! I accepted the offer on my last day of work at Lanier! Never doubt the perfect timing of God who loves you so much!
So after several months of walking by faith into the unknown and trusting God to provide my future job (still with my knees shaking quite a bit), God of course showed up in a BIG way and never EVER fails me.
I did a pretty good job most days walking in faith and trusting. However I had this little twinge of doubt and fear remained in my chest that I was always ignoring too. Sometimes it won, but I tried not to let it win more than it lost.
I prayed about this situation and had faith more than not, but there again I feared sometimes and I wondered if we had made the right decision at all. But in the depths of my heart I knew God was leading us and that we had followed. I knew we heard His voice and that He loved us and would always provide. Truly the faith of the mustard seed is enough and He was listening to even the smallest prayers about the situation. He has blessed us beyond measure with our home, my job, Parker's internship, and so many other things this year. May we always grow in our faith so that God can be glorified and move mountains in our lives!